State of the Undergraduate Library
2006-2007
Submitted by:
Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe
Head, Undergraduate Library
Special thanks to David Ward, Mary Laskowski, Emily Love, Jim Hahn, Meg Burger,
and Susan Avery for contributions to and review of this report.
The Undergraduate Library is a vibrant and dynamic learning commons that is embracing rapidly
developing and evolving changes in information, publishing, technology, and user expectations.
Fully committed to supporting the curriculum, enhancing the academic, civic, and leadership
abilities of students, and participating in celebrations of student achievement and development,
the Undergraduate Library enjoys strong support from students and faculty alike and is poised to
emerge as a model twenty-first century library that reflects the integration of traditional library
resources and collections with the opportunities presented by advancements in digital
information, technology, and social networking. Investments in the Undergraduate Library are
investments in the future of University of Illinois students and the impact they will have locally,
nationally, and internationally.
This report documents the activities of the Undergraduate Library from July, 2006 through
October, 2007. These months represent a time of much change in the Undergraduate Library but
also a time of re-commitment to the goals upon which the Undergraduate Library was founded –
to provide spaces, services, technology and collections that are uniquely developed to meet the
needs of undergraduate students and those who teach them.
Mission – The Undergraduate Library (UGL) librarians drafted a mission statement for UGL at
their December 2006 librarians retreat. The draft will be re-visited and refined through the
Renewal and Transformation Group (RTG) process currently underway in UGL.
The Undergraduate Library is a learning commons offering services, collections,
technology, and spaces that support student learning, exploration, personal growth,
and leadership development through programmatic development, campus
partnerships, and attention to student and curricular needs.
Pursuit of this mission requires a full complement of public, technical, digital and access
services, particularly because of the heavy use students make of UGL resources and
services and the great variety of formats and technologies supported by UGL.
Organizational Structure – In July 2006, UGL was re-structured to better align staffing
resources with library programs and service initiatives and to improve efficiency in staff
supervision. The re-organization brought with it some new naming conventions to reflect the
new organizational approaches. The organizational units and the librarian lead for each within
UGL are now as follows:
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Administration (Lisa Hinchliffe)
Information Services (David Ward)
Information Processing and Management (Mary Laskowski)
Instructional Services (Susan Avery)
Learning Commons (Meg Burger)
Orientation Services (Jim Hahn)1
Multicultural Outreach Services (Emily Love)2
Though the traditional terms of “public services” and “technical services” are inadequate to
describe the activities in UGL, they can be applied to understand the distinction between
Information Services and Information Processing and Management. The re-organization also
retired the name “Media and Reserves” as responsibilities for various components of media and
reserves were integrated into the new units as appropriate.
Organizational Development – In addition to improving the organizational structure of UGL, a
great deal of effort was made to improve morale and organizational cohesiveness. All staff met
with the Head of UGL for a one-on-one discussion in July 2006 in order to review each person’s
responsibilities, accomplishments, talents, and perspectives. As desired by the staff, staff
meetings were held twice per month in Summer and Fall 2006 and every three weeks in Spring
2007. They are now scheduled once per month with additional meetings as needed. Two staff
members (rotating terms of appointment) serve with the Head of UGL as the agenda committee
for the staff meetings.
The UGL librarians held a retreat in December 2006 to draft a mission statement, discuss
possible strategic directions, and identify large projects for 2007. This retreat also furthered the
cohesiveness of the librarians as a team that collaboratively leads UGL and led to the
establishment of weekly UGL Librarians Meetings that have improved internal communication
as well as increased the speed with which issues are considered and decisions are made.
With the support of the Provost and the University Librarian, UGL is now working with the
Renewal and Transformation Group (RTG) on a process that RTG terms “The Journey to
Transformation.” At this point, RTG has assessed Head of UGL’s readiness and conducted the
interview surveys of all UGL staff based on the “Preparation for Transformation Questionnaire.”
In the coming weeks, RTG will meet with the Head of UGL to review a summary of the findings
from the interviews and then schedule an all-staff retreat based on the results. The UGL
librarians are serving as the Leadership Team for this process.
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Added in July 2007 when Jim Hahn was hired.
Though officially part of the Office of Services, the Undergraduate Library is the host unit for the Outreach
Librarian for Multicultural Services.
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Personnel – A significant number of personnel changes have occurred since July 2006, starting
with appointment of Lisa Hinchliffe as Head. UGL welcomed two librarians: Meg Burger as
Learning Commons Coordinator/Visiting Assistant Professor (August 2006) and Jim Hahn as
Orientation Services Librarian/Assistant Professor (July 2007), as well as welcoming Emily
Love as Outreach Librarian for Multicultural Services Librarian/Assistant Professor (August
2006), who is hosted within UGL.
Robin Dennis, Jim Cotter, and Angela Williams have left UGL for new positions and Theresa
Harris, Debora Pfeiffer, and Josh Hankemeier started in their positions respectively. Three longtime staff members also retired: Mark Chenail, Kathy Wright, and Bill Hill. Bernita Harris and
Marie Till replaced Mark and Kathy respectively and the Budget Group has a request for filling
Bill’s position under consideration. In addition, four positions were audited and upgraded to the
next level and two positions were upgraded when vacant and filled at the next level. Updated job
descriptions for all UGL staff positions were written in Spring 2007 and an annual process was
established for staff performance evaluations starting in Spring 2007 as well.
Graduate Assistant staffing in Information Services was re-established to Fall 2004 levels in Fall
2006 and additional graduate hourly wages were allocated in Fall 2007 through the Library Fee
extended hours funding. An additional 20 hours/week of graduate assistantship have been
request to expand technology and digital literacy training instructional programs. Student
Assistant wages were also increased in Fall 2007 through the Library Fee monies to support the
expanded hours. Graduate Assistant and Student Assistant position descriptions were revised and
updated in Fall 2006.
Training and Development – Each new librarian and staff member has received a customized
training program to introduce them to UGL and train them on their work duties and
responsibilities. Graduate Assistants participate in Library-wide training in the fall as well as
additional days of UGL-specific information complemented by one-hour weekly training
sessions during the semesters. UGL has also established a four-hour training curriculum for new
Student Assistants complemented by job shadowing as well as a “Buddy Training” program for
students who work at the desk where each Graduate Assistant and Information Services staff
member is partnered with a set of Student Assistants and reviews a weekly list of training tasks
with them. An email bulletin “Weekly Notes” is also sent to everyone in UGL reflecting policy
and procedure changes, reminders, etc. A robust online Staff and Student Training and
Procedures manual was also written and posted to a secure website so that everyone in UGL has
access to it.
In addition to the professional development activities of the librarians through professional
organizations, conference attendance, and campus faculty development, UGL staff have been
encouraged to participate in a range of development opportunities. In 2006 and 2007, three staff
attended Reaching Forward South and a number of staff attended the Staff EXPO and other
campus events. All are encouraged to participate in Library staff training and development
offerings such as Microsoft Office workshops and the Pedometer Challenge.
Fundraising, Development and Advancement – UGL worked, first with Lyn Jones and now
with Vicky Trimble, to expand UGL’s development and advancement efforts. UGL is the
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grateful beneficiary of the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics pledge to the University
Library and also participates in the activities (e.g., wristband and bookmark sales) that support
that campaign. UGL librarians have also hosted many tours for donors who are visiting the
campus. The Dads Association continues its twenty year tradition of annual funding to place
bookplates in books in honor of high academic achieving students. The fall Parents Conference
has twice featured a presentation about the Undergraduate Library, which has each time received
accolades from the conference organizers. The one-page précis about UGL for the campus
regional gift officers has also been updated.
Though development and advancement have received expanded attention, additional initiatives
are planned and the staff of the Office of Library Advancement have been very helpful. UGL is
working with Vicky and the Foundation Weekend planning team to incorporate UGL’s 40th
anniversary into that weekend’s events in 2009. UGL librarians are exploring ways to re-purpose
content from other communications and publications into a website or e-newsletter for UGL
donors. Finally, a systemic approach to acknowledging gifts from Library Friends earmarked for
UGL is in development.
Communications – Efforts have been made to improve communications both internally and
externally. Internally to UGL a UGLSTAFF-L listserv has been established and all librarians and
staff have an AIM instant messaging account, an account on Oracle Calendar, and access to an
increased amount of information in the g:/Undergrad folder. More systematic use of messages to
LIBNEWS-L and LIBFAC-L as well as the creation of The Undergrad Edge newsletter have
improved communication with the rest of the University Library.
Externally, UGL uses its website as well as an array of social networking tools to communicate
with users. The website was converted to its current template and layout on the basis of extensive
usability, testing and student needs assessment in Summer 2006. Plans have been made for
converting the dynamic portions of the UGL website to the new Gateway header/footer when
Dreamweaver templates become available (e.g., those pages with Twitter and blog feeds) and for
moving non-dynamic pages into the CMS as appropriate.
The UGL MySpace profile (http://myspace.com/undergradlibrary) received a facelift in Summer
2007 to incorporate more multimedia and the Facebook profile
(http://uillinois.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1939902) was expanded as well. In addition,
Summer 2007 saw the release of the UIUC Library Search Application in Facebook as well as
the creation of the “Undergraduate Library @ the University of Illinois” group. A “Friends of the
Undergraduate Library” group was also created in the Always Illinois social networking system.
Finally, a whiteboard with weekly notices was added near the printers in UGL and a system for
recording and acting on suggestions placed in the Suggestion Box at the Information Services
desk was implemented.
The ICR Seed Money grant awarded this past summer will enable further integration into
Facebook in the coming year and offer lessons that can be applied in other social networking
systems. The SecondLife project currently led by UGL and underway in collaboration with the
Reference Library also offers a chance to explore opportunities and limitations in immersive
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environments in anticipation of the expansion of virtual worlds and multiverse avatars predicted
in the coming decade.
UGL has also been featured in numerous Daily Illini and News-Gazette articles as well as in a
segment of “Friday Night Tailgate” on the Big Ten Network and highlighted by the Chancellor
in his speech at Convocation this fall.
Learning Commons – The Learning Commons Initiative has been the focus for much of the
programmatic and service developments in the UGL, in particularly the partnerships and
facilities activities that will be described later in this report. While libraries throughout the nation,
and even internationally, have been developing information/learning commons, the strong
history of UGL in developing services and spaces for undergraduate students has allowed UGL
to evolve the learning commons model beyond mere co-location of library and technology
resources as is common at many campuses to more programmatic and service initiatives and
integrations that capitalize on co-location and partnerships to create outreach and engagement
opportunities. A listing of partners and example activities includes:
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Academic Advising/Division of General Studies – UGL is a Satellite Advising
location. In addition, on a monthly basis UGL provides a three-part note
highlighting a library instruction resource or research tool, library events, and
media resources to the advisors in the Division of General Studies. Each advisor
then incorporates this information into an email newsletter that is sent from each
advisor to their caseload of students who have not yet declared a major.
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Career Center – This is a long-standing partnership that is evolving to include
new opportunities. UGL was represented recently on the search committee for the
new Information Specialist for the Career Center and has initiated conversations
with the person who was hired about improving UGL’s career collection. UGL is
also working with the programming coordinator on resume critique sessions and
Career Counseling Satellite hours.
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CITES – The organizational structure within CITES requires pursuing a
multitude of partnerships based on the hoped for activities and issues at hand.
o Help Desk – UGL is working with the new Director of Customer
Support Services on extending Help Desk services into UGL.
These discussions began in Fall 2007 and have already resulted in
the creation of the collaboration with the CITES Documentation
unit, custom training for UGL staff and graduate assistants in
technical troubleshooting, and access to the wireless transmitter
status website so UGL librarians can determine whether the
wireless in UGL is down or just over-loaded. The possibility of
establishing Help Desk Satellite hours in UGL, at least on a small
scale is also being explored but depends greatly on funding in
CITES.
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o Documentation – To assist UGL in helping students with
technology questions, particularly related to wireless access and
NetFiles, CITES Documentation is developing custom handouts in
print and online specifically for undergraduate students.
o Educational Technologies - UGL was initially working with the
Assistant CIO for Educational Technologies but since that position
is vacant is now working with the Director of Educational
Technologies. The discussions have focused on exploring
TeamSpot as a collaboration technology to add further value to the
group collaboration spaces in UGL.
o Instructional Computing Services –Conversations with the
Manager of Instructional Computing Services (ICS) have focused
on staffing issues with the CITES ICS computing lab in UGL and
installing a projector in UGL 289 CITES ICS Classroom. Through
Library/IT fee monies, funds were provided for staffing extended
hours starting in Fall 2007 to match the hours that UGL is open.
o Security – UGL has hosted two laptop clinics and plans are
underway for a third. CITES Security reports that the UGL-hosted
clinics have the best attendance compared to other campus
locations.
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ILLIAC – ILLIAC is the campus professional group for academic advisors. UGL
librarians have presented at their annual conference and send a monthly posting to
the ADVIS-L listserv highlighting professional development resources in the
Library for advisors, library events, and library resources that advisors are
encouraged to share with students they advise.
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Irwin Academic Center – Work with the Irwin Academic Center has focused on
providing an on-site workshop for athletes who need assistance with research
projects. Staff at the Center have indicated interest in expanding this partnership
but asked to wait until their building remodeling project was complete.
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McKinley Health Center – UGL has worked with the Wellness Promotion
Specialist and Stress Management Coordinator on a variety of activities including
developing a student health information website/healthy information literacy
initiative that will encourage students to use reliable health information resources,
establishing Stress and Wellness Consulting hours at UGL, and distributing Stress
Relief Packs during finals at UGL. UGL has been invited to contribute library
information to the Stress Relief Packs starting in Fall 2007 and discussions are
underway exploring the idea of having UGL as a flu shot clinic location.
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University Housing Residence Hall Library System – UGL shares an
overlapping user group and mission with the Residence Hall Libraries. UGL
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librarians have met with the Director of the Residence Hall Libraries a number of
times to discuss possible areas of collaboration, improved communication, and
professional interests. UGL librarians have also co-presented a variety of
workshops with the Director and have additional programs under discussion. The
Residence Hall Libraries website links to many UGL resources including the How
Do I…?, Subject Research Guides, and Find Articles websites and the Ask A
Librarian service.
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University Housing Learning Technologies and Media Development – Fall
2007 marked the second annual University Housing new student DVD production
involving a segment on UGL (http://www.housing.uiuc.edu/ChooseYourPath/).
The “Explore the Undergrad Library” segment for 2007 features many UGL
librarians, Graduate Assistants and Student Assistants in the vignettes. A copy of
the DVD was sent to all incoming first-year students and the files were also
posted on YouTube.
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Writer’s Workshop – UGL librarians are working with the Director of the
Writer’s Workshop and Graduate Assistants from each unit to develop a research
and writing web portal that presents research writing as an integrated process and
communicates how the services from each unit can assist students.
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Writing with Video – Discussions with the campus coordinators for this
initiative have provided useful perspectives on the challenges of multimediaintensive, collaborative curricular projects. UGL has designed a custom
instruction session for classes in this initiative as well as a custom research guide
(http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/howdoi/wwv.html).
Gaming – The Library’s gaming initiative emanates from UGL because of the location of the
collection and equipment as well as because of the leadership that UGL librarians provide. UGL
librarians have presented about the initiative at the ACRL National Conference, CNI Spring
Meeting, and ALA Techsource Gaming, Learning and Libraries Symposium. The initiative has
also received international attention with visitors from the Netherlands in October and upcoming
guests from Sweden in November. Of particular note has been the collaboration with a professor
in Speech Communication. For his class, UGL placed a game on reserve, established a “gaming
computer” for users, and held gaming working sessions in UGL 291 for students to work with
the game. This project allowed UGL to explore issues in curriculum-integrated gaming library
services as well as to initiate discussions with a game publisher about library acquisition models
for games. In late Fall 2007/early Spring 2008, an expanded gaming cluster will be established
on the upper-level north side of UGL. The Gaming website (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/gaming/)
also highlights the UGL gaming nights and work with campus groups and game researchers.
Events – UGL is developing an events calendar
(http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/events/events.html) to better track and publicize events in UGL.
Fall 2007 events include Chapter 31 and 3 Quarters – dance performance as part of TRACE:
Body/Memory/Movement (October 19 and 20), Research Rally: Paint the Undergrad Orange
(October 24), Homecoming Open House (October 26-28), and Game On @ The Undergrad -
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gaming night and lecture (November 3). Events are intended to showcase student achievements,
participate in campus student life, and/or highlight library resources and services.
Hours of Service – In Fall 2007, UGL is open 119 hours/week and the UGL Study Lobby is
open an additional 25 hours/week. UGL has upwards of 30,000-50,000 visits/month during the
semester. Hours and visitors are decreased during summer terms as expected due to fewer
students on campus.
Reference Services – Beginning in Fall 2007, reference services is provided 94 hours/week and
is expanded to include finals week. UGL offers reference services in person, over the telephone,
through e-mail, in chat, and via instant messaging. Reference questions are also received through
Facebook and MySpace profiles and through the anonymous service, Question Board. Due to the
volume of questions, the reference service is double-staffed 47 hours/week and UGL librarians
work night shifts, 6-9 pm, Sunday-Thursday, during the semesters. Demand for service is
increasing in the late evenings and discussions are underway to identify strategies for meeting
this student need through re-allocation of Graduate Assistant hours from other projects.
Reference service is located at the Integrated Service Desk along with access services to allow
for cross-training and on-the-fly work sharing as user demands require.
Access Services – Access services are located at the Integrated Service Desk along with
reference service to allow for cross-training and on-the-fly work sharing as user demands require.
UGL collections circulate at a high rate, with upwards of 15,000-20,000 items circulating/month
during the semesters including books, media, reserves, and technology. Voyager Circulation and
Voyager Media Scheduling are both in use in UGL, which adds complexity to the circulation and
renewal tasks that must be performed, and Voyager Media Scheduling tasks also include
manually inputting due dates for each item checked out, making advance bookings for items, and
elaborate billing procedures because the system does not automatically assess fees or set item
statuses. High circulation rates also means high levels of fine and billing activities as well as
continuous discharging and shelving tasks. Call slips are processed in the morning and evening
as UGL has a high rate of call slip requests. In addition, UGL provides cash printing services for
the Library as well as selling earbuds for media viewing equipment and laptops.
Information Literacy and Instruction Services – UGL participates heavily in campus
orientation and outreach events to welcome students to the Library and help them overcome
library anxiety. Fall 2007 examples of events include:
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Residence Life Information Fair
Urbana South Living Learning Community Resource Fair
Campus Rec Block Party/CITES Carnival
Quad Day
LAS Student Council New Student Open House
Majors/Minors Resource Fair
The cornerstone of UGL’s instruction program is the information literacy program for
Composition I courses. UGL has established collaborative working relationships with Rhetoric
105, Speech Communication 111/112, and ESL 114/115 coordinators and has developed
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programs that fit the curriculum for each of the courses. A robust set of webpage supports these
instruction efforts (i.e., http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/howdoi/comp1.html,
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/howdoi/SpComm111.html, and
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/howdoi/rhet105.html). Materials are also provided directly to
instructors for Speech Communication 111 and Rhetoric 105 and many of the UGL Subject
Guides (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/subjects/subjects.html) were developed to support
specific Composition research topics.
Librarians’ Office Hours (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/help/officehours.html) complement
course-integrated instruction programs by providing one-to-one instruction to any student who
attends.
In addition to in-person instruction, UGL offers instruction through its web presence. The How
Do I…? website (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/howdoi/how.html) is a portal for helping
students develop their own information literacy skills, perhaps as an assignment for a class,
through a reference referral, or via independent exploration. The complementary Tour
(http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/about/tour.html) helps students learn their way around UGL.
Embedded in the Find Articles Guide (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/find/articleguide.html)
are “How to use” links for specific databases.
The For Instructors website (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/instructors/classhelp.html) offers
instructors information to improve research assignments and make student library experience
better.
The work in Multicultural Services is a strong complement to UGL’s information literacy and
orientation services.
Orientation Services – A partnership with the LAS100 Learning Communities (consisting of
500 first year students) began in Fall 2007. UGL created a Learning Leaders (junior and senior
LAS honor students leading these communities) Wiki (http://lasll.pbwiki.cn/) that features space
for the leaders to collaborate on best practices, learn about library resources critical to first year
success, and download of an iPod quiz that introduces first year students to library resources.
UGL also provided training for the LAS Advisor leader the Learning Communities initiative and
the Learning Leaders on library use, gave UGL librarian led tours of UGL to about 300 students,
and created a LAS100 course page (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/howdoi/las100.html).
Discussions have also begun underway with New Student Programs in the Office of the Dean of
Students: New Student Programs about library collaboration for campus-wide new student
orientation.
Technology – Because students increasingly need to use technology in order to use information,
UGL has greatly expanded its technology offerings. In addition to the media viewing facilities
traditionally offered, UGL has the following equipment available for loan:
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Laptops
MP3 Players
External Hard Drives
Portable DVD Players
USB Drives
TI-89 Graphing Calculators
Digital Cameras
Digital Video Camera
Tripod
Nintendo DS
Sony PSP
In addition to PC public workstations, UGL also offers ten iMac public workstations that include
Adobe Creative Suite 2 and the iLife Suite to support multimedia creation and editing. A known
area of student need is for formal instruction on academic and career applications of technology.
Discussions with the Residence Hall Library System are ongoing about workshop possibilities.
Collections –The UGL collection is developed and heavily edited to emphasize high-use items
and formats with a focus on newer digital collections and technologies in order to best meet
student needs and is largely maintained by UGL Information Processing and Management. In
2006, 24,131 items were transferred from UGL (or its storage location in the Press Building) to
the Oak Street facility, 34,121 items were withdrawn per University Library policy guidelines
and approximately 10,000 items were processed out from the History UGL Storage location for
transfer to Stacks or History, Newspaper and Philosophy. An additional 59,000 items have been
identified for transfer from UGL collections in 2007-2008, based on publication date and
circulation statistics, and a report has been written that can be run annually to identify low-use
items for transfer to off-site storage each year. To process these materials identified for transfer,
IPM retrieves items from the UGL locations, verifies the accuracy of the cataloging, changes the
holdings and permanent locations, and routes materials to Oak Street using the online transfer
macro or to Conservation as appropriate. IPM is also working on projects to improve Voyager
records. For example, the staff is beginning work on corrections for 3,400 items where
permanent item location and the item holding location do not match.
In Summer 2006, the entire collection was also shifted and the collections from the longdisbanded Self-Help Information Center and Illini Union Browsing Room were integrated into
the main collection with the result of a single, continuous call number sequence for UGL’s
collections. In addition, the entire media collection (over 20,000 items) was also moved into the
open stacks on the lower level and made accessible to all patron types for circulation outside the
building. That move necessitated re-housing the DVD collection in security cases, processing
location and item type changes item by item, and re-marking much of the collection to reflect
changed locations and policies.
New collections areas in UGL in the last year include streaming videos and e-audiobooks (the
later are still awaiting licensing and so are not yet available to patrons). UGL has ceased
collecting in microfilm/microfiche and no longer has microform equipment. Existing microform
collections were transferred to other library units as appropriate to the content and formats held.
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Strategies for the future include aggressive acquisition of reference materials in electronic format,
continued acquisition of streaming video and audio, and flipping journals to electronic only.
UGL will maintain a small collection of print periodicals and newspapers to satisfy student
browsing and personal information needs. An NEH Challenge Grant study is currently underway
to assess the existing VHS collection and the need for/availability of replacement options.
UGL revised its Collection Development Statement in January 2007
(http://www.library.uiuc.edu/administration/collections/tools/developmentstatement/undergradua
te_library.htm) to better reflect its collecting priorities and activities. Fund codes were also
reviewed and merged for increased efficiency as appropriate. Additional discussions are ongoing
about the relationship of the UGL collections to the University Library’s collections as a whole.
Cataloging – Information Processing and Management (IPM) maintains responsibility for a
variety of cataloging functions for the Undergraduate Library and the Library as a whole. IPM
performs original and copy cataloging for media to be housed both at UGL and elsewhere
throughout the University Library, and also does catalog maintenance such as call number
revisions, status updates, and record enhancements for UGL’s book and serial collections. IPM
catalogues an average 300 titles/700 items per month. Specific projects this year include original
cataloging of the recently discovered microfilm of the main card catalog and shelflist, developing
a workflow for cataloging streaming video, and creating comprehensive documentation for
media cataloging guidelines.
Acquisitions – IPM handles the bulk of acquisitions work for UGL, including orders for media
collections that originate in other units. The acquisitions work specific to UGL includes placing
and tracking media, monograph and serial orders for the UGL collections and supporting course
reserves by ordering materials at instructor request for the print reserve collection. IPM staff also
work on in-depth researching and placing orders for media materials outside of UGL and place
orders to satisfy copyright guidelines for the library-wide e-reserve service.
Library-Wide Technical Services – In addition to the library-wide cataloging and acquisitions
work mentioned above, IPM also serves as the technical processing and copyright
clearance/permissions unit for the Library’s e-reserves service and contributes to the Library’s
mass digitization efforts as staff time and workflow allow. Recent projects include digitization of
the backfiles of Library Office Notes (LON). The majority of staff and librarian time within the
IPM unit is devoted to these library-wide technical services, particularly the electronic reserve
service which supports all campus departments and patron levels. In recent semesters, e-reserve
technical processing has involved creating in excess of 16,000 links to electronic readings and
these readings were accessed over 600,000 times during the 06/07 fiscal year. A project is
underway to improve the infrastructure for tracking e-reserves requests, possibly through the use
of the OTRS system.
Facilities and Safety/Security – UGL’s facility reflects many of the deferred maintenance
challenges common at the University of Illinois as well as the wear-and-tear reflective of the
heavy use students make of the space. Major space use changes in 2006 included integration of
four individual service points into one Integrated Services Desk location, re-positioning of
shelving, removal of individual study carrels, moving media viewing units to the lower level, and
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re-locating staff workspaces for Information Processing and Management and Information
Services. Design and install of seven group collaboration rooms and re-edging the large study
tables enhanced user workspace. Major infrastructure improvements involved installing a fire
suppression system throughout the building, repairing brickwork on the plaza, and replacing the
emergency exit doors and doorframes on the west side of the upper-level and tuck pointing the
surrounding brickwork. The HVAC system has required regular repair. Plans are underway to rekey the building for improved safety and security, replace the signage, add once/weekend
cleaning services during the semesters, discuss improved lighting, and paint the restrooms. UGL
is also a component of the master planning process under contract with Woollen, Molzen and
Partners.
UGL has worked closely with the Library’s Director of Facilities to limit the disruptive effect of
all of these necessary projects on users and staff workflow as well as to address a variety of
safety and security concerns resulting from violations of the Library’s Patron Conduct Policy
and/or issues that arise from being a high use, publicly-accessible building.
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